My Computer

Member

You have two choices...
Either use Paragon on a 30 day free licence.
or
Macrium reflect "clone" to a slave drive.
Shrink with minitool if you need to shrink that is
Then macrium reflect "Clone drive" back...

New Member

I was able to make a system image from within Windows 8 using it's native tool...and then I booted from a UEFI based Windows 8 key fob and then ran disk part and cleaned the disk, restored the image and it booted.

I haven't had any luck with Aomei getting a restored image to boot. But then again, I don't have a solid UEFI based boot environment for Aomei. I just figured that I would be able to restore it using legacy BIOS mode, and then switch it over to UEFI and then reinstall the boot loader, but that did not work, at all. I've tried tons of bcdboot, and fixmbr, and bootrec commands...but none of them get my system to boot back up.

New Member

I spent the $39 on a copy of Paragon Backup and Restore 12, created the 64bit WinPE bootable media (USB key), it boots via EFI. I previously booted with my Windows 8 install key, ran diskpart, cleaned the disk so nothing was there, then booted the Paragon key, restored my image and I have success.

Hi there
Why not use a Windows to Go system --You've presumably got access to a Windows 8 Enterprise system to create one. Then install Acronis on it. You can then use the Windows to Go system as a recovery platform for your main machine too.

If you don't have access to W8 Enterprise you can download a 90 day evaluation version -- this would certainly allow for adequate testing of various recovery scenarios.

I think there is a slight confusion here between UEFI / GPT boot and the PROTECTED BOOT.

If you switch off protected boot ATM 2013 works just fine. I don't like the whole idea of protected boot anyway -- I sometimes want to boot other OS'es on a machine - and while using VM's is normally what I would do sometimes you need to try stuff out on an actual PHYSICAL machines.

New Member

You have two choices...
Either use Paragon on a 30 day free licence.
or
Macrium reflect "clone" to a slave drive.
Shrink with minitool if you need to shrink that is
Then macrium reflect "Clone drive" back...

This is interesting. Can Paragon do the same? Specifically, I'm interesting in imaging the entire factory disk (GPT disk including all partitions from the factory) onto a smaller drive I have lying around. Certainly, the amount of data on the factory disk is much smaller than the backup disk, but physically, it is indeed larger. And, would the backup include all the partition information so that all partitions are put back with their exact original sizes?

If the above is not possible, what about this scenario (if I may be so bold): Let's say I backup the disk from the factory, wipe the EFI/W8 recovery/system partitions, and clean install W8 onto that unallocated space. The W8 install creates new hidden EFI (and other) and system partitions on the drive. If wanted to restore the factory system image back, would I first need to wipe system and hidden partitions and restore the image?

Essentially, what has me confused are the hidden partitions. Specifically, how does a restore handle pre-existing EFI hidden partitions - are they simply overwritten from the recovery and re-sized if needed? And if the hidden partitions don't exist, such as on unallocated space, does the recovery create them from the backed up image so that the machine boots?

My Computer

Well-Known Member

This is interesting. Can Paragon do the same? Specifically, I'm interesting in imaging the entire factory disk (GPT disk including all partitions from the factory) onto a smaller drive I have lying around. Certainly, the amount of data on the factory disk is much smaller than the backup disk, but physically, it is indeed larger. And, would the backup include all the partition information so that all partitions are put back with their exact original sizes?